Week 15: Differentiation with Google Forms

I had just begun taking full advantage of the differentiation powers of Edmodo when I decided to switch over to Google Classroom. From the start, I was disappointed by the fact that Google Classroom did not allow me to put my students into small groups, like I could on Edmodo, and thus assign each small group a different assignment (or a different version of the same assignment); however, I was able to do virtually just that using Google Forms.

On Monday of this past week, my students were working on revising their writing. In order to effectively differentiate my instruction to best meet the needs of my students, I needed to split them up. When I was reading their original assignments, they naturally fell into five separate groups based on how they did on that assignment and the areas they needed to improve upon. The original assignment was to write three paragraphs summarizing and responding to an article. The five groups were:

1. Students who understood the argument and purpose of the text and just needed to make minor revisions to their writing.
2. Students who partially understood the argument but needed clarification on the purpose of the text before they could work on revising their writing.
3. Students who misinterpreted the argument based on something else that was mentioned in the article. It was obvious that these students understood some parts of the article, but they missed the big picture. These students needed to figure out the argument and the purpose before they could revise their writing.
4. Students who had trouble understanding the article. Their writing was very unclear and mixed up. They needed to work on understanding the article and then on making a clear point with their writing.
5. Students who had not completed the original assignment.

As you can imagine, each group needed individualized instructions. Rather than having each group wait patiently as I gave instructions to the other groups, I decided to use Forms to help me give the instructions and walk the students through some of the information I needed them to understand before they could start revising their papers. That way, I could focus on walking around the room and helping students individually and/or in small groups in dissecting the article and/or in revising their writing as opposed to wasting my time giving instructions.

Before assigning the form, I had students move so that they were in those five groups. I did this in case they wanted to work together and help each other AND so it would be easier for me to address common problems and questions to each group.


Here is what the form looked like on the students' end:

Page 1 of the form

The page students were taken to if they clicked on Group 1.

The page students were taken to if they clicked on Group 2. If they selected the wrong purpose, they were taken to a page that told them to re-read and try again. Once they got the correct purpose, they were told to start revising.

The page students were taken to if they clicked on Group 3. If they selected the wrong argument, they were taken to a page that told them to re-read and try again. Once they got the argument, they moved onto the same question on purpose that Group 2 was taken to directly. After understanding the purpose, they were told to start revising.

The page students were taken to if they clicked on Group 4. After correctly identifying the argument, they were given a sentence frame to help them write the argument in a clear sentence. Then, they were walked through identifying the purpose. I put them in a separate group, so that after they got through understanding the argument and purpose, I could sit down with them and focus on helping them clearly express their thoughts on paper.

The page students were taken to if they clicked on Group 5. This walked them through reading the article and identifying the author's argument and purpose. At then end, they are provided with a graphic organizer to help them with their writing that the other students received originally in print.

Here is the entire form if you want to click through it to see where it takes you.

And here is what the form looked like on my end:

Page 1 of the form - Notice that next to where it says "Multiple choice," I checked the box, "Go to page based on answer." This is what allowed me to direct my students to different pages and questions. I had to create those other pages and then come back here to specify where I wanted my students to be taken.

Here is another example. Once I had this question made, I could duplicate it if I needed to use it somewhere else by clicking on the icon that looks like one piece of paper on top of another piece of paper in the top right-hand corner; the copy would still direct students to the appropriate places. Notice that I also checked the box for "Required question" down at the bottom. This ensures that the students can't get away with skipping the question; they have to select an answer before they will be allowed to move on.

I had to insert one last page (which I just called "Last page") at the very end of my form. None of the other pages connect to this page, but for some reason, some of the other pages would not function properly without it. I am guessing this is just a glitch in the Google Forms software, but, for now, be advised that you may need to do this.

I will admit that I was up late on Sunday night setting up this form, but, when Monday rolled around, it made my life so much easier than it would have been if I had not done so. As I said above, I was able to assign this form and have my students start working while I wandered around, helping the students who needed it most. It was awesome. 

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Ease of use: If you are just getting used to Google Forms, I suggest you practice and play around making forms until you feel you have mastered the basics before you attempt doing something like this. It isn't that it is extremely difficult (Forms actually makes it quite easy) - it's just that there are a lot of little kinks that you may need to work out. Also, you need to make use of backward mapping for this. You need to have an overall vision of what you want your students to accomplish before you start so that the way you create and link pages makes pedagogical sense.
Would I use this again: Yes. The wonderful thing (and also horrible thing) about the Internet is that nothing ever really gets deleted. I've created this form, and I can use it whenever I want. I can also duplicate the entire form, so that the pages are still linked, and just tweak the questions and answers to fit whatever it is I want it to fit. Or I can create an entirely new form from scratch. The possibilities are endless.
Downsides: As I mentioned above, there are kinks that need to be worked out. Once you've created your form, you need to go through it, clicking on every possible answer, to make sure that it actually takes you to the place you want it to go. Don't rely on the fact that it says it will take you to a specific page, because it might not if you don't have a random last page of if you didn't click on of the right boxes. You need to test it before you can use it in class. That being said, once you've made it and have tested it, it and all future copies of it should work.
Applications: Differentiation! All teachers know that we are supposed to be differentiating in our classes, but we can't always figure out how to do it effectively, especially because you don't want one group doing nothing while you are working with another group. This helps because you can give the students more individualized instructions, and you can even build the re-teaching right into it! It's awesome.